A tonneau cover is a cover that is adapted to cover a cargo box of a pickup truck.
Some tonneau covers have two or more enclosure panels. Adjacent enclosure panels may be connected together via a connector or rail. The connector or rail may be adapted to provide for the adjacent panels to be folded, pivoted, or otherwise moved to provide access to the inside of the cargo box.
Due to manufacturing and/or assembly variations, some edges of some enclosure panels may have uneven cuts or surfaces, which may provide an unintended passageway for water or particles to travel around an edge of an enclosure panel and enter the cargo box. Moreover, a size of the connector may vary due to manufacturing considerations and/or tolerances, which may likewise provide an unintended passageway for water to enter the cargo box. Also, during manufacturing and/or assembly of the tonneau, varying amounts of adhesives and/or sealants may be applied to the panels and/or connector, which may undesirably result in areas having little or no adhesive and/or sealant, which may also provide an unintended passageway for water to enter the cargo box.
During manufacturing and/or assembly of the tonneau cover, applying the adhesive and/or sealant may be labor intensive, time consuming, and cumbersome. Excess or even wasted adhesive and/or sealant may also be realized during manufacturing and/or assembly due to the manual application of the adhesive and/or sealant. Lastly, additional footprint in the manufacturing and/or assembly facility must be dedicated to storing the adhesive and/or sealant.
Accordingly, opportunities may exist for improving the current state of the art.
For example, in some applications, it may be desirable to have a tonneau cover that includes a connector with one or more seals. It may be desirable to have a connector with one or more seals that are adapted to contact and engage a corresponding enclosure panel to take up manufacturing and/or assembly variations in the enclosure panel(s) and/or connector so that passageways or gaps between the panel and the connector are reduced or eliminated to prevent water from traveling around the panel(s) and into the cargo box.
It may also be desirable to have a connector with one or more seals that engage the enclosure panels to prevent excess sealant from being applied to the panels and/or connector during assembly of the tonneau cover. It may also be desirable to have a connector with one or more seals to reduce or eliminate the amount of storage space required at the manufacturing and/or assembly facility for the adhesive and/or sealant.